


Blades, Body, and Bending: the Ultimate Plan for Success

by invisible_light



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Fire Nation (Avatar), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 02:02:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18202004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invisible_light/pseuds/invisible_light
Summary: Seven-year-old Mai doesn't particularly like her new starting school she's attending, but maybe those two girls she notices can make things a bit more fun.





	Blades, Body, and Bending: the Ultimate Plan for Success

**Author's Note:**

> Work on this project was so much fun and I loved collaborating with @greeninkpenguin and @babelfell (on Tumblr) for this! The art they both drew for this is amazing!  
> http://greeninkpenguin.tumblr.com/post/183629108833  
> http://babelfell.tumblr.com/post/183643737311/collab-with-invisible-light789-and

Mai was already bored, and the class had just started.

It was the privileged seven-year-old’s first day at the prestigious Royal Fire Academy for Girls, and it was about as dull as she’d expected. The teachers were all stiff and strict, and all the other students seemed the same way. They all obeyed so easily, like she knew she was supposed to. Even the Princess Azula seemed far too serious about her studies for such a young age. Mai didn’t like how she was treated so formally by the teachers, like the little girl could chop off their heads if they didn’t treat her like a goddess, checking in on her constantly to make sure she was comfortable even though they hadn't started learning anything yet. It made Mai feel angry, like she wanted to throw something and scream.

At recess, she sat alone under a tree, eating her lunch in the shade as she watched the other girls laugh and play together, smiling to herself when they were scolded for being too loud. Once she finished her food, Mai took a few small knives out of her pocket that were wrapped in a dark scrap of fabric so they couldn't cut her. She had found them under her mother’s bed a couple weeks before, and immediately become fascinated with their shining points and strange balance of weight, and the way they cast weird beams of light across the walls when she angled them just right. She had been begging for dagger-throwing lessons for what seemed like ages now, but her father said it wasn’t proper for someone of her position of power to learn such things, especially since she hadn't shown any signs of firebending yet. She needed to be quiet and behave instead, then she could get what she wanted. Maybe when she was older, he always said. Mai had a feeling that out of all the things she asked for, this would be one thing that wouldn’t be given to her on a fancy platter.

Now she cradled one of the small silver knives in her hand, examining the way it gleamed at one particular angle and momentarily blinded her. She held it up, gripping it the way she’d seen some of the guards do in training, and aimed for another tree a few feet away. She stopped, poised to strike, tuning out the chatter and laughter around her. She took a deep breath and threw the knife, watching it spin in the air and settle… in the ground a good two feet in front of the tree. Sighing and furrowing her eyebrows in frustration, Mai held up another one and tried again, getting close to the roots this time. Maybe one more time and she would be able to hit it—

“Hi!”

Mai jumped, dropping the stiletto in her hand and narrowly avoided stabbing herself in the foot. She looked up to see a girl with long brown hair and a way-too-big smile on her face standing over her.

"I'm Ty Lee," the girl said cheerfully, as though Mai hadn't nearly died a moment before. "What's that in your hand?"

"It's a knife,” Mai said simply, glaring at Ty Lee. She wasn't here to make friends, she was here because she was forced to. And Ty Lee didn't exactly seem like the kind of person her father would approve of. "Not that you could tell the difference between it and the ones servants use for butter. Now go away."

Ty Lee frowned at her, pouting slightly. "Why are you so mean?" she asked.

"I don't like you," Mai replied, turning and throwing the stiletto in her hand, hitting the base of the tree so hard that a bit of dirt fell to the ground.

"You don't even know me," Ty Lee, stepping into Mai's line of vision again as she prepared to throw the last stiletto. "At least talk to me for a few minutes before you say you don't like me."

"My father doesn't like loud people, and you're loud," Mai said simply, grunting as she aimed, this stiletto hitting the tree right above the one before it. "He always tells me to be quiet, and you're too loud for him."

"That doesn't sound like fun," Ty Lee said, sitting down next to her. "Why doesn't he—"

"I said go away," Mai snapped, moving to retrieve her stilettos. "I don't like you, and that’s it." She turned away and picked up the knives, relieved that when she turned around the other girl was gone. She hadn't meant to be rude, she'd been raised to be polite no matter how annoying she found someone. It was just that this girl scared her somehow. She almost wanted to be friends with her and see what made her smile so much. She seemed so easygoing, like she would fight for things if people didn’t give them to her instead of just being quiet and backing down. This girl seemed interesting, like there was something to life beyond faking patience and happiness to get whatever she wanted. And that possibility that scared Mai more than she would ever admit.

"Whoa, that's so cool!" Mai turned and watched Ty Lee push herself out of a handstand, smiling proudly at the girl that had spoken. "Can you teach me?"

She sighed and turned away, throwing a knife and wincing as it flew completely to the left of the tree, disappearing in the grass. Her mind wandered as she aimed to throw another, drifting over to the conversation behind her.

"This is so hard, how can you do that?" the girl was whining.

"It's simple, you just trust your arms to hold you up," Ty Lee said, a smile in her voice. Did she ever stop smiling? What was there even to smile about with that girl being so annoying?

"Can you show me again? I'd rather watch you do it."

Mai frowned and threw another dagger, scowling as it, too, flew beyond the tree. Why couldn't she get it now?

"Whoa, how did you do that?!"

Unable to resist, Mai turned around to see Ty Lee in a full split on the ground, grinning at the other girl's shocked face.

"Practice," Ty Lee smiled, getting up. "Want me to help me?"

"No, that looks too hard!" the girl shook her head. Mai rolled her eyes and turned around. "But you're amazing! You’re like those travelling performers I see all the time, but better!"

"I'm glad you like it," Ty Lee said as the stiletto clipped the side of the tree, a piece of bark flying off to the side. "Do you want to see something else?"

"Yeah!"

Mai breathed out slowly, the background noise fading away, and threw her last dagger, watching as it sunk deep into the soft wood at the base of the tree. She moved to retrieve her weapons and the world came back into focus.

"Can't your sister do that?" a voice came from the crowd gathering around Ty Lee.

"Yeah, I remember her! She's friends with my brother! She taught me that trick at the beach one day!" one girl exclaimed.

"Yeah, she did it better than you," another said.

"She's Ty Woo, of course she's better," the first girl replied.

"But she was nicer too," another girl pointed out.

Mai stared numbly through the crowd of red clothing and smirking young faces and briefly met Ty Lee's big brown eyes, seeing the tears gathering there as she realized how outnumbered she was.

"Oh yeah?" Ty Lee said, her face turning red with anger. Mai blinked and suddenly the first girl who had spoken was crumpled on the ground, crying.

"I can't move my legs!" she said. "What did you do to me?!"

"Simple," Ty Lee smiled, a strange glint in her happy eyes. She started to explain, but Mai couldn't hear it over the screaming of the other girls as they ran around, trying to find one of the teachers that had so recently been breathing down their necks. One finally ran forward to help the fallen girl and Ty Lee slipped through the crowd, seemingly disappearing. Mai glanced around but couldn't find her, at least not easily. Suddenly uneasy, she wrapped up her knives again and shoved them in her pocket, gathering her lunch and drifting back inside. She didn't want to be outside anymore.

Mai wandered into the empty classroom, sitting at her assigned desk. The classroom seemed so lonely without all the other people around, even if they were stuck up and annoying. It was so quiet, like—

Footsteps in the hallway made her freeze, even though she wasn't doing anything wrong. She glared down at the book on her desk, pretending to read in case it was a teacher wondering what she was doing inside. She began to come up with an excuse in her head, clenching her fist around the stilettos in her pocket, thankful for the thick cloth as the hilt of one pressed into her palm.

"Hey."

Mai’s head snapped up to see Ty Lee standing in the doorway, seeming almost shy. She was looking down at the ground, running her foot over the floorboards as she clasped her hands behind her back.

"Well, are you going to tell me how you did that or not?" Mai said after a few seconds of silence.

Ty Lee's face lit up into a wide grin again and she rushed over to sit beside her, chattering away about how she'd learned all about the human body and muscles and the right places to hit to render a person completely motionless. Mai listened intently, a small smile on her face for the first time all day.

"What were those things you were throwing earlier?" Ty Lee asked when she was finished. "You seemed pretty good."

"I only just found them," Mai replied, looking down at the ground. "They're called stilettos, I think. They're kind of like knives, and you throw them."

"Oooh, that's cool!" Ty Lee leaned forward eagerly. "Can I try using them sometime?"

"If you show me how to do some of the things you can do, I don't see why not," Mai shrugged.

"Yay!" Ty Lee exclaimed, sitting back and grinning. "I think we're going to be the best of friends."

Mai found herself smiling at the energetic girl, despite the whisper in her head that told her no, no smiling, remember? No emotions, Father will be angry. She shoved that voice away and nodded, saying, "Yes, I think we will."

The two talked for the rest of recess, and the other girls began to file in when it was time for the lesson to begin again. It was about as boring as the morning part of class had been, but every once in a while Mai would look over at Ty Lee and she would make a weird face at her, making her smile. It didn’t matter that they got scolded once or twice by the teacher for not paying attention, it made the class bearable.

When school ended, Ty Lee and Mai stayed back, standing under the tree where they had met before as the other girls ran around, waiting to get picked up by servants to go home. The two were engaged in a conversation about the best flavors of jelly tarts when a shadow suddenly blocked out the sunlight from their view.

"What—" Mai began, a scowl on her face as she turned to face whoever dared to interrupt them. She froze when she saw Princess Azula standing there, a smirk on her face.

"I like the two of you," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "I want you to be my friends."

Ty Lee and Mai paused, turning to look at each other. They knew she could probably punish them if they refused, being the emperor's daughter and all, but they were young and didn't dwell on that too much. They instead thought of all she could offer to them, and remembered how interesting and smart she had seemed in class. She’d even mentioned being able to form a full flame in her palm already, her firebending skills coming early to prove she was as strong as everyone already knew. They nodded to each other before turning back to Azula.

"Fine," Ty Lee said, meeting the princess' eyes. "As long as you share your food at lunch. We've already agreed to make that an official friendship thing."

Azula smiled, nodding easily. "Of course. I'll make sure to ask the cook to back a few more biscuits tomorrow if you want."

Ty Lee grinned, nodding, and Mai could already tell that the three of them would become a force to be reckoned with.


End file.
